Mainstream WeeklyWhat message from the wrecking ball in Nepal
Nepal made big news in the past week with a very violent uprising, which led to a dramatic overthrow of its Government in less than 48 hours. Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli who was supposed to travel to India this week, had to literally flee, like most of his colleagues. On September 3, the Left wing government in Nepal banned Facebook, YouTube, Twitter under a directive requiring regulation of social media seeking to control fake news, misinformation and disinformation. There was an initial spontaneous response from an amorphous group of young people who mobilised peacefully to protest the social media ban. This is a lot that seems to have near zero interest in politics & easily swayed by influencers or gurus on digital platforms via their mobile phones, they are bound together in society as consumers and users of social media, but with no common social agenda. They are young or so-called Generation Z in the age group ranging 16-25 years that are 20% of the Nepali population of nearly 30 million. Their protests erupted across Nepal and by the day two a whole new set of people with diverse interests joined these protests raising demands against corruption among political elites and for economic justice